Oregon's ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University is the oldest chartered university in the West. The Oregon Territorial Legislature granted its original charter as the Tualatin Academy on Sept. 26, 1849. In 2024, ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University celebrates its 175th anniversary.
½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University History
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Legacy of Care
In 1846, 66-year-old widow Tabitha Moffatt Brown crossed the Oregon Trail and arrived in the Oregon Territory. Though she had hardly a penny to her name, she dreamed of caring for the many children she saw abandoned or orphaned along the trail or in the wake of the California and Alaska gold rush.
With local Congregationalist leaders, like the Rev. Harvey Clark, she opened a home and school in a log cabin, where she served as housemother and caretaker. Soon after, Congregationalist Church minister George H. Atkinson proposed converting the school into βan academy that shall grow into a college.β
On Sept. 26, 1849, the Oregon Territorial Legislatureβs first official act was to grant a charter to the new school, establishing Tualatin Academy and the foundation of what would become ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University.
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Like many universities, ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦβs history is inextricably tied to the colonization of the West. As Tualatin Academy was growing into ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University, the Tualatin, or Atfalati, Kalapuya who had lived in this region long before white pioneers arrived, were being forced from this land. Today, they are part of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.
A generation later, ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ leaders were complicit in their support for the federal Forest Grove Indian Training School, where children from throughout the Northwest were stripped of their culture. The Forest Grove Indian Training School operated from 1880 to 1885, when it moved to the Salem area. Today it operates as Chemewa Indian School.
Growing a University
Tualatin Academy and ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University grew up in tandem, the university bestowing its first baccalaureate degree in 1863. By the early 1900s, public high schools replaced the need for the academy and Tualatin Academy closed as ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ transitioned exclusively into an institution of higher education.
Over the course of the 20th century, ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University grew from a one-building college to a robust university. Grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ sought to offer its students an educational foundation that launched them into careers of care and service.
In 1911, ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ became one of just three colleges in Oregon authorized to recommend students for high school teaching certificates. In 1994, the university established a dedicated College of Education. In 1945, ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ took over the Northwest College of Optometry, launching its foray into healthcare education. Optometry would later be joined by physical therapy in 1975 and the growth of health professions programs culminated in the establishment of the College of Health Professions with a dedicated campus in Hillsboro in 2006.
½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ Today
Today, ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University continues to be a cornerstone of Forest Grove, Hillsboro and Washington County, the economic hub of Oregon. ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ alumni work predominantly in schools, health systems and social/community services, uplifting their communities through a passion for purpose and service. ½πΙ³ΣιΐΦ University serves more than 3,500 students with undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in the liberal arts and sciences, business, education, health professions, and optometry, inspiring students to think, care, create, and pursue justice in a global community.
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